SQL Azure - What next

SQL Azure - What next

Okay, first I now have Visual Studio 2017 Pro. I want to start looking at SQL Server 2017 capabilities but don't have SQL Server 2017 available at work or home at the moment so diving into SQL Azure.I have setup an Azure subscription but don't know where I should go from here. Do I want SQL Database or do I want to go the VM route? I have never felt so confused and out of my depth, well except when my daughter was asking for Python and C programming help.

Okay, first I now have Visual Studio 2017 Pro. I want to start looking at SQL Server 2017 capabilities but don't have SQL Server 2017 available at work or home at the moment so diving into SQL Azure.I have setup an Azure subscription but don't know where I should go from here. Do I want SQL Database or do I want to go the VM route? I have never felt so confused and out of my depth, well except when my daughter was asking for Python and C programming help.

As a DBA, you are well qualified to advise your daughter to focus on powershell. Unless you are company is moving to Azure, you won't discover much about SQL 2017 Azure SQL database. Everything you are used to see is missing. Everything else is confusing and boring (because lots of dba stuff are being handled behind the scene.) So if you'd like to explore, I suggest VM.

Or, search the Google for something like "Installing SQL 2017 on Linux using Docker containers" if you want to keep it out of the cloud...even on a Windows Desktop. I did that whole thing in under 30 minutes from a blog post I cannot find anymore

Okay, first I now have Visual Studio 2017 Pro. I want to start looking at SQL Server 2017 capabilities but don't have SQL Server 2017 available at work or home at the moment so diving into SQL Azure.I have setup an Azure subscription but don't know where I should go from here. Do I want SQL Database or do I want to go the VM route? I have never felt so confused and out of my depth, well except when my daughter was asking for Python and C programming help.

As a DBA, you are well qualified to advise your daughter to focus on powershell. Unless you are company is moving to Azure, you won't discover much about SQL 2017 Azure SQL database. Everything you are used to see is missing. Everything else is confusing and boring (because lots of dba stuff are being handled behind the scene.) So if you'd like to explore, I suggest VM.

First, I can't advise my daughter to focus on powershell. She is a college student at Johnson & Wales University in their Cyber Security program. She has to learn that which is being taught, which includes Python, C, assembly language (MASM at the moment) and what ever else that comes down the pike in her program.

Don't mean to hijack your topic or start a war here...As a DBA, even though I am in an MS SQL environment, I believe we should try to become comfortable with all flavors of databases. For this reason, I picked Python, something I can use with any database, on any platform. Python is portable, powerful, objected-oriented, with unlimited open source modules to use, it is useful both an analytic tool for data gurus and an automation tool for DBA's. I highly recommend it.

It's a shame that SQL 2017 comes with a half-baked/limited Python environment where people cannot fully experience the benefit of this language.

I have no problem doing this in the cloud, it allows me to access it from both work and home. So, it looks like I will start to investigate using a VM.Means I should look at getting a developers edition of SQL Server 2017 if I have to install it myself.

If you want to focus on SQL Server 2017, then the way to go is to create a VM. You can create the SQL Server 2017 Developer Edition server easily enough. I'm not sure what your spending limits on Azure are with your MSDN account, so you'll have to pick the service tier that you can afford. Here's how you get going:

Right at the very top of the screen on the portal is a + sign. Click it. That will open a blade (that's what the little windows are called).

There's a search icon (magnifying glass) next to an input box. Type this in the box: sql server 2017 developer.

You'll see a drop down with a variety of operating systems supporting a VM with SQL Server 2017 on it. Pick one. For me, Windows was the bottom one, but you might see something different.

You'll see a window with licensing information. Ignore it. At the bottom of the screen is a button. Click it.

Fill out the basics. Give your server a name. Supply a user name and password. Create a new resource group (always put your work into discrete resource groups. This is because when you're done, you can drop the group and it drops all the stuff inside of it, makes clean up from dev & test easy). Define a location. Doesn't have to be close to you, but it doesn't hurt. Click OK.

You're on your own for this step. You have to pick your service level. If all you're doing is mucking about with SQL Server and you're not exploring all that Azure offers, max this out to your monthly limit. Click on the words "View all" over on the right to get a full listing of all the sizes of machines available. Pick one. Click Select.

The next blade is Settings. You can leave the defaults in place here (yes, tons to experiment with, but if we're just going after SQL Server 2017, I'm fast tracking you). Click OK.

SQL Server settings can also be left at the defaults. Click OK.

You'll see a summary of all the choices you made. Click Create.

Wait a bit. At the very top of the screen There's a little bell icon. When your VM is ready, it'll tell you there. You can click on the VM and it should open in a new blade. At the top of that blade, on the left, is Connect. Click that. It'll download an RDP connection. Use your login and password that you created earlier ".\username".

Bob is your mother's brother at this point. You'll be inside a VM (windows presumably) and you'll have a running version of SQL Server 2017 and, as I write this, Version 17.4 of SSMS installed and waiting. It'll have SSAS and SSIS installed and running too. Everything you need.

I'm going to turn this into a blog post.

----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore Roosevelt

As a DBA, you are well qualified to advise your daughter to focus on powershell. Unless you are company is moving to Azure, you won't discover much about SQL 2017 Azure SQL database. Everything you are used to see is missing. Everything else is confusing and boring (because lots of dba stuff are being handled behind the scene.) So if you'd like to explore, I suggest VM.

Total argument on this. If it's confusing, then you don't understand it. There's a learning opportunity. It ain't boring because it's taken away the dull stuff (do you really like setting up backup scripts?). It's exciting. You can focus on all the fun stuff like setting up Geo-Replication using Powershell in only two lines of code. I'll bet you can't do that on your personal machines back in the office. Azure SQL Database (and all the Platform as a Service offerings, MySQL, PostgreSQL, CosmosDB, etc.) are where are learning has to come from in the future. That's where lots of companies are going to move to with some of their load. It ain't boring.

----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore Roosevelt

If you want to focus on SQL Server 2017, then the way to go is to create a VM. You can create the SQL Server 2017 Developer Edition server easily enough. I'm not sure what your spending limits on Azure are with your MSDN account, so you'll have to pick the service tier that you can afford. Here's how you get going:

Right at the very top of the screen on the portal is a + sign. Click it. That will open a blade (that's what the little windows are called).

There's a search icon (magnifying glass) next to an input box. Type this in the box: sql server 2017 developer.

You'll see a drop down with a variety of operating systems supporting a VM with SQL Server 2017 on it. Pick one. For me, Windows was the bottom one, but you might see something different.

You'll see a window with licensing information. Ignore it. At the bottom of the screen is a button. Click it.

Fill out the basics. Give your server a name. Supply a user name and password. Create a new resource group (always put your work into discrete resource groups. This is because when you're done, you can drop the group and it drops all the stuff inside of it, makes clean up from dev & test easy). Define a location. Doesn't have to be close to you, but it doesn't hurt. Click OK.

You're on your own for this step. You have to pick your service level. If all you're doing is mucking about with SQL Server and you're not exploring all that Azure offers, max this out to your monthly limit. Click on the words "View all" over on the right to get a full listing of all the sizes of machines available. Pick one. Click Select.

The next blade is Settings. You can leave the defaults in place here (yes, tons to experiment with, but if we're just going after SQL Server 2017, I'm fast tracking you). Click OK.

SQL Server settings can also be left at the defaults. Click OK.

You'll see a summary of all the choices you made. Click Create.

Wait a bit. At the very top of the screen There's a little bell icon. When your VM is ready, it'll tell you there. You can click on the VM and it should open in a new blade. At the top of that blade, on the left, is Connect. Click that. It'll download an RDP connection. Use your login and password that you created earlier ".\username".

Bob is your mother's brother at this point. You'll be inside a VM (windows presumably) and you'll have a running version of SQL Server 2017 and, as I write this, Version 17.4 of SSMS installed and waiting. It'll have SSAS and SSIS installed and running too. Everything you need.

I'm going to turn this into a blog post.

It is deploying now (I found a tutorial on Microsoft docs) but it took three tries to get it going.